BASEBALL TRIES NOT TO WASTE ITS TIME.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

In addition to out-of-town scores, outfield murals and advertising signs, there's something else that many Dodger Stadium fans might be seeing for the first time this season.

The ninth inning.

Our town's notoriously early-departing baseball fans had one less excuse during the Dodgers' first homestand, when games moved along at a sprightly pace, getting everybody home by bedtime, or wherever they were going.

One game, a 3-0 loss to Brian Anderson and the Arizona Diamondbacks, was over in 2 hours, 16 minutes. Another, a 3-1 Hideo Nomo victory over the Houston Astros, took only 2:14. Each was shorter than any game played at Dodger Stadium in 1997.

Some of the credit should go to the pitchers who kept runners off base. But a lot of the credit should go to major league baseball, which is finally doing something about one of the game's most talked-about problems.

``I can understand why people have been leaving games in the seventh inning,'' said Frank Robinson, the Hall of Famer player and former manager who is leading baseball's effort to speed up the games.

Actually, Robinson doesn't call it ``speeding up'' or ``shortening'' the games, because that frightens purists who appreciate the leisurely pace of the only major sport without a clock.

``What we're trying to do is take out some of the dead time,'' Robinson said.

Put in charge of the project by the commissioner's office, Robinson filtered recommendations and presented a plan to club owners when they met in St. Petersburg, Fla., in March.

Appropriately, Robinson was kept waiting outside the hotel ballroom for hours while the owners met behind drawn curtains to vote on the Dodgers' sale to the Fox Group. He stood in the lobby with reporters.

He said the goal is to shave 15 minutes from the average game, split seconds at a time, pitch by pitch. Among the suggestions:

Keep batters in the box between pitches, or within three feet of the box, even when they're checking the third-base coach's signs.

Require pitchers to deliver within 12 seconds of getting the ball when the bases are empty.

Require hitters to leave a second bat with the batboy before going to the plate. That way, if a bat breaks, the hitter doesn't have to walk back to the on-deck circle or dugout to choose a replacement.

Instruct umpires to grant fewer timeouts, never turning down a batter who might have something in his eye but saying no to a batter who seems to be trying to unnerve the pitcher.

Ask managers to send pinch hitters to the on-deck circle as early as they can and to signal for relief pitchers before walking to the mound when possible.

Outfit the public-address announcer with a stopwatch and urge him to announce the first hitter of a half-inning precisely 1 minute, 40 seconds after the last out of the previous half-inning.

Owners accepted the suggestions. Now Robinson is touring the major-league stadiums, talking to the teams about the plan and monitoring its implementation.

He said an effort to enforce the guidelines would begin in the coming week, with ``penalty'' balls and strikes meted out for violations. That will take getting used to for everybody.

Last week, Robinson, 62, addressed the Dodgers in a pregame meeting, and sat in the back row of the Dodger Stadium press box during the game, working a stopwatch and taking notes on a scoresheet.

He liked what he saw, especially when, twice in the game, hitters waited at the plate while replacements for broken bats were brought to them.

``That probably saved a minute right there,'' Robinson said.

Which might not sound like much but those minutes add up. Perhaps most important, if baseball is seen to have solved one of its significant problems, it might be the first time that's happened in the '90s.

``I don't think fans have any complaints about the way the game is played,'' Robinson said. ``It's the dead time in between the action.''

Players should like the shorter games, too, once they get used to this. Fielders stay more alert when pitchers work quickly. Dodgers manager Bill Russell thinks pitchers ``get in a good groove'' when they work quickly.

Robinson remembers how, in his playing days in Baltimore, the Orioles hated to play behind a certain pitcher they called ``3 and 2.''

``If he had an 0-and-2 count, in the outfield we'd say, `Relax for three pitches,' '' Robinson said. ``We'd say, `Please don't pitch him on a getaway day.' ''

No, there won't be a rule forcing pitchers to throw strikes (though the Dodgers should tell Hideo Nomo there will be).

Robinson's plan is a small, reasonable step in the right direction. The commissioner's office said it's too early in the season to know if it's a hit, but 2:14 looks like a line drive in the box score.